Presenting the championships

The Annual  British & World marbles championship is one of the most prestigious  and historical event.

The Annual championships take place every Good Friday at the Greyhound pub in Tinsley Green in Sussex. This event is a great fun day out for all, children and adults alike. There are outdoor activities for all as well as the main tournament events. It is free to attend. You can see some photos from the annual events in this website to give you an idea of what its like. In an age where children spend more time in front of screens, it is good & healthy to preserve some of the old outdoor traditions. Wikipedia has also a very good webpage of the tournament and its history. The Crawley Marbles Appreciation has also great content, commentaries and photos.

This annual tournament has a great historical dimension, known probably as the oldest international marbles tournament; running every year since 1932 (except World war period 1942-45 and the Covid-19 pandemic 2020-21). So a total of 86 occurences as of 2023.

 There are between 20 and 32 teams competing spanning from UK, Germany, Australia, USA and other countries too. On the day, the teams are competitive. However, it is all in a friendly atmosphere. Germany has  been well represented by up to four or five teams (and their fans); and for the past five to six years, German teams have been dominating the game, having sometimes two or three teams present in the semi-finals, and winning frequently the main trophy (team event). The tournament starts to be very competitive and heats up from the Quarter-finals onwards, this is where you start to see more or less the same (seeded) teams year on year.

The (featured) photo at the top shows the central ring at the 2005 Marble Championship. I took the photo from the Greyhounds pub (balcony). We can see the tournament main referee on central stage; Mol.